Top 10 Workouts To Keep You Motivated

Just like anybody my mood to workout varies. Some days I just want to do cardio and stay on the elliptical for 35 minutes, while other days I want to do a power workout with weights.  Even though my motivation varies there are 10 workouts, in no particular order that I love to do no matter my mood.

1. Kickboxing

I can’t think of anything better than some straight jabs, upper cuts and round house kicks to let out some stress. The gym I attend offers a kickboxing class that I make sure to attend whenever I’m free. To bunch and kick to upbeat music for 60 minutes is almost better than chocolate….I said ALMOST.  If you don’t attend a gym or your gym doesn’t offer a class there are a lot of great kickboxing DVDs for at home convenience. It’s a must workout to try!

2. Hot Yoga

Another class that I am a frequent attendee of is Hot Yoga. Turn up the heat to 110 degrees will get you sweating in five minutes. Throw in 75mins of cardio yoga and it equals one intense workout. While you may curse several times throughout it and have the urge to find the nearest ice cold pool to jump into, by the end your body will have sweated out all the bad toxins and the rest of the day will seem like a breeze.

3. Jumping Rope

This workout is obviously nothing new, but it sure does beat running aimlessly on the treadmill. This cardio workout gets your heart rate pumping in no time and is ironically the go-to cardio workout for kickboxers. This is not a theme for the remainder of the article, by the way.

4. Kettle Bells

If you are unfamiliar with a kettle bell it’s a weight with a handle attached to it, and most importantly makes it on my list because of the variety of workouts you can do with one. The handle lets you easily swing it for swing through squats, curl it like you would a dumbbell, and easily hold it out in front of you as you do a sit up with a reach. It’s workout friendly and offers a variety of exercise options.

5. Jumping Jacks with Medicine Ball

I’ve been doing a lot of free weight, total body workouts that I made the topic of in my last blog "No More Excuse Workouts." On some of them I will do anywhere between 50 to 100 jumping jacks per set and after the first set they quickly become redundant. This is where the medicine ball comes in. Hold the medicine ball at your chest and instead of clapping your hands together raise the medicine ball straight up, this technique not only provides a little variety to your typical jumping jack but also makes it an upper body workout, as well.

6. Russian Twist

The next two exercises are in the core family workout. A Russian twist is where you sit with your back off the ground but tilted back with a weight or medicine ball in your hand as you twist side to side touching the ground. To increase the difficulty, raise your legs so your feet hover of the ground. It’s a far cry from your typical mundane sit up and personally, I think it targets your core even better.

7. Jack Knife Sit Ups

Also in the core family is the Jack Knife Sit Up, which is also another great mulitasker workout. Begin by laying flat on your back and hands behind head with feet straight out. Rise up as you would a sit up, while you simultaneously lift your legs spreading them outwards and back in like a pair of scissors. When you can feel the burn you know it’s working!

8. Dumbbell side bends

This great oblique exercise is simply holding a dumbbell in one hand as you bend to the side letting the dumbbell drop down to about your knee. Repeat 15 times and switch hands to complete one set. This workout seems too good to be true with the simplicity but the great end results down lie – it works!

9. Squat Press with weights

I’m not a huge fan of leg workouts, but I know they have to be done, so I like to mix mine up by doing a leg and arm workout. Hold two dumbbells, one in each hand, and perform a squat. On your way up raise your weights and press them to the sky. Now you’re not only targeting your quads and calves but your arms and shoulders. Check another multitakser exercise off the list!

10. Mountain Climbers

Finally, but certainly not the last fun exercise I can think of, is the mountain climber. I’ll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with this one. It’s kind of like corn to me, it better be mixed in with a lot of other good vegetables, or exercises in this case, for me to crave it. What keeps me motivated to do these is the final result. By simply having your arms fully extended in a plank position, alternate moving your knees in to your chest, kind of like you’re running in place. It’s simple but quickly gets your heart rate up while working out your core area at the same time.

Now I think my theme is apparent – multitasker workouts are the way to go and most importantly, keep you motivated! Try incorporating some of these in your next workout and see if you think of working out as less of a chore.  

About Just Learn Balance

Just Learn Balance, JLB for short, is the one-stop-shop for race teams looking to stand out from the rest. With a desire for living a healthy lifestyle and a love for racing, founder Jamie Brown combined her two passions to form JLB. The company focuses on the three C’s: Challenge, Change, and Create.  JLB challenges the inner winner in future and current drivers, and crewmen, by getting their body in athlete form. JLB changes a client’s perception of food and dieting into a healthy way of living. Finally, JLB creates marketing material that highlights why our clients are winners. For questions or comments about JLB, please contact justlearnbalance@gmail.com

 

No More Excuse Workout

Last week I gave some valuable suggestions as to what NASCAR drivers and pit crewmembers should include in their traveling closet (a.k.a. suitcase) to help keep their diet in check while on the road. Of course, just because your snacking is on track you can’t forget about the other half of the healthy living equation – exercise!

I’ve been to a couple hotels in my day and have seen the lack luster of a gym some provide so with the assumption that you won’t have access to a gym for four days it’s time to get creative.  Since you may not have room in your suitcase for a couple dumbbells or oversized tire that the crossfit gyms like to use, no equipment workouts are just as beneficial. My latest addiction is weight free, total body circuit training. You can do these anywhere and work up quite the sweat.

Here’s an example of one:

-100 Jumping Jacks                           -20 Lunges (each leg)

-50 Crunches                                     -70 Russian Twists

-20 Tricep Dips                                 -20 Standing calf raises

-15 Squats                                         -5 Push Ups

-30 Second Plank                              -10 Lunge Split Jumps

Move from one exercise after the next, take a minute break after the 10th, and finally, lather, rinse and repeat three to four times for a heart rate raising workout.

The variety in this example works out every body part and leaves you sweating and cussing by the end just as if you were lifting weights at the gym. Another great plus in addition to this being an equipment free workout – you can do this anywhere! Have some spare space in your hotel room? Bust out the 30-35 minute workout in your pajamas before your day even begins. Have some down time at the track? Go into the lobby in the hauler and kill some time before qualifying.

Just because the exercise is weight free and convenient you can’t forget to actually schedule time to complete the workout. Personally, 5 or 6 times a week I start my day off by completing a workout similar to what I provided. It wakes me up, gets the workout out of the way for the day, and honestly, just starts my day off right! Now, I understand some people aren’t morning people and after hitting the snooze button 5 times you don’t have time to fit in a workout. The great thing about racing is that the track provides you with a schedule when everything is taking place that day. You know way ahead of time when the garage opens, when practice starts and hint, hint, when you have time to fit in a workout. So, if you’re not a crazy workout morning person like myself you clearly have other options!

Grab your snack, put on some comfortable workout clothes and throw out those excuses. In the words of Darrell Waltrip - boogity, boogity boogity – let’s go workout boys!

About Just Learn Balance

Just Learn Balance, JLB for short, is the one-stop-shop for race teams looking to stand out from the rest. With a desire for living a healthy lifestyle and a love for racing, founder Jamie Brown combined her two passions to form JLB. The company focuses on the three C’s: Challenge, Change, and Create.  JLB challenges the inner winner in future and current drivers, and crewmen, by getting their body in athlete form. JLB changes a client’s perception of food and dieting into a healthy way of living. Finally, JLB creates marketing material that highlights why our clients are winners. For questions or comments about JLB, please contact justlearnbalance@gmail.com

Packing All the Essentials

Toothbrush. Check. Uniforms. Check. Granola Bars. Wait, what? Drivers, pit crew members, and the wives and kids for some, are loading up the RVs, team buses, and private planes in route to the NASCAR season opener. The essentials like hygiene products, and clothes for at the track and away from the track are always remembered to be packed in their closest on wheels but one item tends to get left behind – snacks! Although, not just any snacks but nutritional snacks that provide enough energy to get through the lengthy drive and 12 hour plus days at the track.

As a driver or pit crew member, it’s very easy to forget to eat, especially when trying to get from point A to point B the quickest or working long hours at the track.  The temperature can be unbearable and the thought of eating a chilidog or turkey leg from the concession stand can cause some dry heaving just thinking about it. So the natural thought is to deny your body the fuel it’s craving and just wait it out until you leave the track for the day. Or you simply forget to eat due to the hectic pace the day may provide.

While I’m not a driver or pit crew member, I to need to fuel my body when I travel or am out of my typical daily routine, therefore, I pack a goody bag full of a couple granola bars, an apple and a 100-calorie sweet treat. However, I wasn’t always this overly prepared. I used to think, like many, that my meals coincide with a certain time. Some days it would be 10:30 AM and I would be starving but refuse eat because lunch time wasn’t until 12 PM. Don’t laugh at me, I know you’ve thought like this before if not more than once. Truth is I was hurting myself more than helping. By snacking, not on chips but rather a 200-calorie or less nutritional snack, your metabolism is given that extra boost of energy it was starving for. Even more of a plus is that you now won’t feel deprived when lunch comes around forcing yourself to over eat to compensate for denying your body so long for food.

I may be able to fit a lot of things in my purse, but the goody bag of granola bars and fruit takes up a mere fraction, so erase “not enough space” from your list of excuses.  I’ve heard all these excuses – it’s too hot, I’m too busy, or don’t have enough room - way to often. Therefore, like a good girlfriend, I packed my boyfriend a goody bag full of granola bars and 100 calorie treats for his sweet tooth as he embarks on the new race season, forcing him to get real creative on why he forgot to eat that day or downed a bag of Cheetos during the rain delay. 

Need some healthy snack ideas? I recently did my own nutritional bar taste testing experiment. These are all great on-the-go snack options for those long road trips or to take to the track. Just like the racecar, your body needs a pit stop for a little extra fuel to get to victory lane.

About Just Learn Balance

Just Learn Balance, JLB for short, is the one-stop-shop for race teams looking to stand out from the rest. With a desire for living a healthy lifestyle and a love for racing, founder Jamie Brown combined her two passions to form JLB. The company focuses on the three C’s: Challenge, Change, and Create.  JLB challenges the inner winner in future and current drivers, and crewmen, by getting their body in athlete form. JLB changes a client’s perception of food and dieting into a healthy way of living. Finally, JLB creates marketing material that highlights why our clients are winners. For questions or comments about JLB, please contact justlearnbalance@gmail.com

Fitness Confusion – What to Believe?

            The title says it all, there’s a whole lot of confusion when it comes to fitness and nutrition. For instance, is eating after 8 PM bad for you? Is heavier weights and fewer reps more beneficiary than lighter weights and numerous reps? Fitness experts like to believe these questions are black and white, but here’s why I think these questions, and many similar, are still up for debate. After picking up my monthly workout class schedule at the gym I noticed an intriguing fact or myth section from Fitness Editor of Women’s Health, Jen Ator, proposing some questions to play devils advocate with. Here’s what I mean…

1. Morning is the best time to work out? Myth – Late afternoon your muscle strength peaks.

-I understand the point made it’s definitely accurate BUT morning workouts are beneficiary as well, as it helps keep your metabolism up so you continue to burn calories throughout the day. Working out in the morning also keeps you on track to making smarter eating choices throughout the day, but that’s more of mind trick than an actual fact or myth statement. Therefore, question number one is not completely a myth but a mixture of both.

2. You can reduce cellulite through exercise? Fact – Cellulite is largely determined by genetics so there’s not much you can do to prevent it, but exercise will help reduce the appearance of cellulite.

- The main fact in this statement is that cellulite is genetic. I can see where the idea that exercise tones your legs so the area that shows the cellulite marks would be less noticeable but to make people, especially women, who suffer from this problem more than men, think this is strictly a black and white scenario is like saying you won a million dollars...IF you had all the correct lottery numbers. Both scenarios squash hopes and dreams of getting rid of stubborn problems.

3. Stretch before you workout? Myth – Recent reviews show no evidence that stretching actually prevents injury. Instead “warm-up” using functional movements that will prepare you for your workout and mimic the exercise you’re getting ready to perform.

- Personally, I agree with this one but I also think it’s a case-by-case situation. Say you’re recovering from an injury, suffering from arthritis, or new to working out, than stretching out sore or rarely used muscles may be a better idea then leaping straight into five minutes of jumping rope to warm up. Yet another scenario that may seem black and white to one fitness expert but is clearly a mixture of fact and myth, which I now feel the need to call a fath!

What I’m trying to get across from the fath scenarios is if you are trying to live a healthier lifestyle you need to go by what your body needs, wants, and can handle. In other words, advice from editors like Ator is a great starting place but if you can’t workout in the afternoons know that it doesn’t mean your morning workouts are useless , they to have their own benefits. However, I will leave you with this last fact or myth question proposed by Ator - Exercise makes you smarter? Fact! There’s no fath about this one, which is even more reason to get moving and Just Learn Balance!

Side note: Race season is quickly approaching. If you’re looking to get motivated this year in making smarter eating choices and training like an athlete contact me at JustLearnBalance@gmail.com.  

About Just Learn Balance

Just Learn Balance, JLB for short, is the one-stop-shop for race teams looking to stand out from the rest. With a desire for living a healthy lifestyle and a love for racing, founder Jamie Brown combined her two passions to form JLB. The company focuses on the three C’s: Challenge, Change, and Create.  JLB challenges the inner winner in future and current drivers, and crewmen, by getting their body in athlete form. JLB changes a client’s perception of food and dieting into a healthy way of living. Finally, JLB creates marketing material that highlights why our clients are winners. For questions or comments about JLB, please contact justlearnbalance@gmail.com